Prison book ban ruled unlawful

A prisoner who says she loves reading has won a High Court battle against Justice Secretary Chris Grayling’s controversial restrictions on jail inmates receiving books from friends and family.

A judge declared the restrictions introduced by a new prison rule in November 2013 “unlawful”.

Mr Justice Collins’s decision was a victory for Barbara Gordon-Jones, 56, a convicted arsonist with a borderline personality disorder who has a degree and a doctorate in English literature.

Gordon-Jones, of Tudeley, near Tunbrige Wells, Kent, who also suffers from depression and epilepsy, is serving an indefinite sentence for the protection of the public and is being held at Send prison near Woking, Surrey.

She was denied legal aid but was able to bring her court challenge because lawyers represented her for free.

She challenged the section of the new Prison Service Instruction (PSI) she said “imposes substantial restrictions on the ability of prisoners to receive, or have for their use, books”.

The judge said the PSI amended the Incentives and Earned Privileges Scheme (IEP).

He said: “I am satisfied that insofar as it includes books in IEP schemes, the PSI is unlawful.”

The solicitors said in a statement: “Reading is a right and not a privilege, to be encouraged and not restricted.

“Indeed, Mr Justice Collins commented that, as far as books are concerned, ‘to refer to them as a privilege is strange’.

“The policy was unnecessary, irrational and counter-productive to rehabilitation. It is now rightly judged unlawful.”

The solicitors said the Justice Secretary and prison governor “sought to argue that there remained adequate access to books because prisoners borrow them from the prison library or purchase them with their own money, but this was rejected in today’s judgment”.

They said: “Prison libraries are often inadequately stocked and there are restrictions on access.

“Spending caps for prisoners usually mean that there is enough for bare essentials but not for books.”

Referring to the fact that Gordon-Jones was refused legal aid, the solicitors warned: “Under current proposals to restrict judicial review, it would be more difficult to bring this case and hold the Government to account.”

A Prison Service spokeswoman said: “This is a surprising judgment.

“There never was a specific ban on books and the restrictions on parcels have been in existence across most of the prison estate for many years and for very good reason.

“Prisoners have access to the same public library service as the rest of us, and can buy books through the prison shop.

“We are considering how best to fulfil the ruling of the court. However, we are clear that we will not do anything that would create a new conduit for smuggling drugs and extremist materials into our prisons.”